Easter Weekend 2010 saw the newly formed BSA (british slalom association) run their 1st ever event at the beautiful south beach , Tenby. Freezing easterlies on Saturday saw longboards and SUP's dominating the masterblasters as there wasnt just quite enough wind to plane.

Sunday saw better temperatures,decent wind, and blazing sunshine. With the beach packed with day trippers Chris Lewis from Neil Pryde ran a fantastic commentary ensuring they all went away pretty fired up about windsurfing. The Amatuers and masterblasters had loads of great races. The T-15 kids battled with the shorebreak all day long with Ben Marshall eventually beating all the other juniors and taking 1st place at a special prize giving on Sunday afternoon. For the Adult Mb's it wasnt over yet and for the amateur and Pro slalom it was still winding up in preparation for Monday's forecast wind.

Magic monday arrived with pro fleet slalom sailors taking everything from 5.8-8.0 sails and recreational sailors 5.0-6.0 . The pro fleet wrapped up 4 complete rounds of downwind slalom , culminating in a fantastic beach start race with buoys almost out to Caldey island , 4 gybes and a finish in by the beach. The amateurs as usual got loads in and the masterblasters another 3 races in brilliant planing conditions under bright sunshine.

Hats off to all the winners - amazing to see such a strong local representation in both the amateur and masterblaster fleets. Maybe next time i can find time to practise more and improve on my 9th place in the pro's (Cribby's gonna take some beating though).

Big thanks to all at Surflink Tenby (especially Mike), Starboard/ Tushingham ,Rat Rigs.com, the BSA race crew and volunteers , and everyone that turned up to make it the best ever national event for newcomers and also the most competitive Pro fleet in the UK for at least a decade.

So i'm off to tune up my gear, on the isonic 144 i was using a drake 56 fin with a 9.4 on the sunday morning and it was working really well in the lighter stuff - does anyone have any feedback on smaller fins in more powered conditions with a big sail on the 144/133 as it did feel a little draggy at times.

Also with the 111 i only tested it with the 7.8 and 42 fin but the whole combo was waaaaay too big on the monday - but what are folks using fin wise with the 111 and 7,8 in proper powered conditions ? 42/40/38 ???

8m and 9m in powered up conditions: Select RS7 41cm from 15 knots to 25 knots. Great fun in this range with GPS peaks at mid thirty knots.

8m over powered conditions: Select RS7 38cm from 20 knots upwards. Only tried this a few times, works ok if you have not taken a smaller board with you.

The Select fins are not has powerfull as the Drake R13, so you could go 1cm smaller on each size. Also, Im 105kg so usually take a slightly bigger fin.

I know that there are better fins than Select or Drake R13, but for fun sailing or non-pro racing, its hard to justify buying a two or three of the more expensive fins for each board. Would require a small mortgage to do so

Ahem - been away from the computer for a while ;-)
That's great info for the fins - cheers

So i now have the drake 56 for the 144 and next really windy powered 9.4 day im gonna try a MFC RC 50 that i've acquired - it's a std tuttle so im needing some very very long bolts.
Withe the 111 Ive only really tested it with a 42 MFC SL which is was sweet with a 8.3 but illmainly use it with a 7.8 so will test a K66 40 and a drake 38 that are floating round here (methinks the drake will give just as much lift as the k66)

The is 76 is a great board for open water blasting - but - for me at 85 kilos i was sinking comingout the gybes at tenby for a bit so im looking to get an is 94. The reality is if its windy enough to freesail that 76 then ill be wavesailing and if it's gonna be windy enough at a slalom contest for it (reckon 5.2 and below) then ill actually get round the course faster on my kode. Meanwhile for "normal 7.0-6.0 " racing conditiosn the 94 will give me a fater course VMG.